Spectra Logic Outlines Vision for Deep Storage Tier

Storage and archive solution provider Spectra Logic has unveiled its vision for a low-cost, massively scalable "deep storage" tier that it says can store data "virtually forever" by migrating data from tape to other formats. The company also introduced a RESTful interface to robotic tape storage systems, called Deep Simple Storage Service (DS3), to help customers grappling with cost-effective ways to store massive volumes of long term data.

"Our vision and roadmap for delivering deep storage solutions is designed to meet the new, evolving storage requirements of modern data centers and use cases," said Nathan Thompson, founder and chief executive officer for Spectra Logic. "There is a transformation occurring in how organizations amass, use and store long term data that necessitates a new tier of storage – deep storage – that delivers extreme low cost, power efficiency, high density and massive scalability. This tier must be designed to manage large, bulk quantities of data for extended and possibly indefinite periods of time while meeting the needs of newer data center architectures that leverage storage in the form of data objects and utilize RESTful interfaces."

Managing Tape Storage for Future Generations

Spectra Logic makes BlackPearl, an appliance that optimizes tape storage and includes support for built-in media migration for seamless transfer of data to future deep storage media formats. It also includes and supports different drive generations to ensure a seamless transition to newer tape media formats.

In support of its vision, Spectra Logic has introduced the DS3 interface, a RESTful interface supported by all of its T-Series tape library data storage systems. The DS3 interface enables modern architecture frameworks to easily and efficiently communicate with massively scalable deep storage technologies.

The DS3 interface allows data-intensive organizations to utilize the highest density, most cost-efficient storage for long term data retention and accessibility. The DS3 interface provides intelligent data object reads/writes, which optimizes tape drive and tape media utilization and performance. DS3 supports deep storage in a wide capacity range with configurations as small as 15 terabytes and scales into multiple exabytes in a single tape storage system.

"The new interface announced today is the first in a series of innovative technologies and solutions we will be introducing to support deep storage," added Thompson. "Adopting DS3 has been made easy for our current customers, as well as new customers. It's supported by all of our T-Series tape libraries as a standalone, deep storage solution or a current customer's library can be partitioned to add on a deep storage partition."